One Deep Breathe
by sawchy
Summary: The Covenants conquering of Seti Borta was immenant and both sides knew it. The humans would try to defend it and the Covenant would beat them down like an arrogant child, but as the fighting begins to heat up the battlefield spawns some new heroes.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

_**July/ 20**__**th**__**/ 2533/ UNSC Calendar**_

_**Seti Borta System/ Seti Borta VI / K'tinga City**_

Lance Corporal Stephanie Kerkova lay quietly in the fallen ruble of what used to be the fourth floor of an apartment block. The sounds of thunder crackling over the sounds of gunfire echoed in through the gap in the wall ahead of her. She shifted slightly and the ruble moved underneath her light weight.

The loud thunderclap sounded over head of her and she fought her urge to jump at the massive burst of sound. Stephanie smiled at her control over her reactions, she had barely moved when the thunder sounded. The air quieted after the sound of the thunder echoed itself into submission; it was then replaced with the dull repetitive sound of the falling rain.

Stephanie looked out over the city ahead of her; it was dead looking with falling and crumbling buildings littering the night sky. The once familiar city horizon was crumbling and the enormous sky scrappers had been blown or dissolved from existence. She frowned as she gazed at what remained of the biggest building in the Seti Borta colonies, its giant triangular shaped designed was pocked with holes and had huge chunks missing. Windows and large support beams were shattered or completely destroyed on the massive building.

The sound of gunfire ripped out of the streets below her once again. This time she could make out the distinctive crackle of a UNSC MA5B Assault rifle followed by the loud whine of a Covenant Plasma Rifle. Stephanie looked over at her helmet lying to her right: it was lying along with her three extra magazines for her S2 AM Sniper Rifle. On the left side of her lay the four empty magazines from the day previously.

The day before, an entire covenant company tried to advance up the streets she was covering. It had been led by a small group of Elites, but mostly the company was made up of Grunts. She had gotten lucky; when they advanced they were on foot while escorting three Specters. On board the specters were a large stockpile of supplies; it carried what looked like everything from methane tanks to fuel rod cannons.

She had managed to cut down the Elite officer in charge of the company in the first shot. With the next three shots, she had killed the drivers of all the Specters before she reloaded. With her next magazine she had shot all the methane tanks strapped to the vehicles causing a massive blast that ripped out over the Grunt infantry and killed a large majority of them. Bodies, blood and plasma weapons had flown through the air in a wave of horrid death.

The remaining covenant troops retreated back down the street, she had proceeded to kill all that remained of the Elite officers, anything from the blue armored ones to the more seasoned red armored officers. None of the elites had escaped to bring back the knowledge of her location. Because of this, she didn't feel the need to move just yet.

Stephanie sighed and slowly rolled over; she took cover behind a fallen piece of ruble from the hole in the building she was sniping from. It had been made by a UNSC Longsword fighter a few days ago when she first arrived in the area. She grabbed her helmet and quickly put it on; she didn't bother strapping it around her head. She wasn't going to be wearing it for very long.

The second she turned the radio on, the sound of screaming echoed over the radio waves. The sound of the person's death made her cringe in pain at their death cry. The scream was so loud it was indistinguishable from a man or woman, it could have been either or that was being killed over the entire radio network. She felt a twinge of pity for the soldiers on the ground and the pilots in the air who were fighting down in the streets and in the banshee filled skies.

"Fifth squad pull back to that coffee shop," yelled a man over the radio.

"Negative, they've got us pinned-," the voice of a woman was cut off by the sound of whining plasma rifles.

The frantic voice of a man came on the radio next, "fifths gone, they just overran their position. We need backup, they're gonna hit us next!"

The officer's voice broke through again, "negative, negative. We need tanks on the second street over, why are they coming through here?!"

"Were getting pummeled by elites from that building over there, where the hells our support," yelled the other man. "Christ," he yelled followed by the sound of gunfire and screaming. "They just hit half our damn squad, were pulling back!"

"Negative, hold your ground. We need to hold these Elites off so our scorpions can engage the Wraiths in red light district," he yelled to his dying squads.

Stephanie took her helmet off with a grim look spread across her face; she looked over at the window and saw two specks flying in the distance. It was obviously a pair of banshees moving to engage some human position that was unlucky enough to be sighted by covenant forces.

She quietly moved back to her spot in the rumble filled floor and gazed with her rifle out the window. The street below her was empty except for the corpses from the previous day and the few days of straight fighting on the ground. She breathed out and gazed through the scope at the corpses of the dead men and aliens lying in their own piles of entrails and blood. Several had looks of pure shock and surprise on their faces, stuck in the horrid look of the moments before death.

That's when she saw it; it was just a flicker out of the corner of her eye. She lifted her head back from the scope and looked at the building across the street. The glowing made it instantly visible, the blue glowing face mask that the Jackal was wearing was all that was visible in the dark room across the street from her.

That's when she heard the sounds of soft feet padding on the floor behind her. It was almost so quiet that she couldn't hear it over the rain. She quickly rolled back behind the cover she had taken refuge behind last time. She placed her rifle beside her on the floor and reached for her M6C Magnum. She cocked it and pointed it at the door of the apartment she was in.

Stephanie quietly got to her feet as the sound of quiet clicking and hissing could be heard. She smiled, this Jackal was talking to the one across the street, and they must be a sniper team of some sort. It was a terrible thing to do when you where a sniper, any sort of noise could give you away to anyone hunting you. In this case, the Jackal gave himself away by speaking to the other one across the street.

She slowly walked towards the door with her handgun at the ready, its bulky iron sights rested at the midsection of any creature that might be on the other side of the door. She quietly took a step forward, listening for any sound to come through the door. She looked back at where her gear laid, her body armor lay next to her rucksack in a neat pile. She debated whether or not to go back and get the armor but if she did, the Jackal might come in and kill her while she was getting it on. No, it was better to just go and try to kill it now while she could catch it by surprise.

Stephanie looked down at herself; she was wearing a black T-shirt with the words UNSC scrolled across her chest. There was nothing that could protect her from anything the Jackal could dish out. If it had even a weak plasma pistol it could still burn its way inside of her chest.

Another cluck came through the door, it was much closer then it was before. It was much closer now; it was coming down the hallways outside of the apartment. Stephanie took another step and leaned up against the wall next to the door, she held her weapon up as she began to open the door slowly. She slowly opened it a crack, she looked down the hallway dark garbage and debris littered hallway.

Stephanie felt her heart thumping in her chest as she continued to look through the barely open doorway. The darkness was blinding and she felt her adrenaline continuing to flood through her blood. She knew she should run and try to escape, but she knew she should also kill these two snipers before they kill any humans who come down the street.

She knew, like most human marines, that the covenants snipers were extremely accurate and that in combination with their sniper rifles ability to rapidly fire a second shot immediately after the first. The two snipers could probably cut down an entire platoon, possibly even two platoons before they could retreat away from the snipers firing arc.

Stephanie opened the door fully and stepped through the door, she held her handgun in both her hands and at the ready. She scanned one end of the hallway, then turned and scanned the other end of the hallway. There was no sign of the Jackal, where could it have gone?

The wall to her left erupted into a bright green light and the molten slag that used to be a chunk of the metal wall melted downward. She turned just as another shot whizzed past her head and washed against the far end of the corridor. Stephanie finished her turn and saw the Jackal fire a last shot before it disappeared back into the apartment next to the one she was in. She dived to her right side as the last shot barely missed her mid section. She landed in a pile of debris on the floor and some of the random metal chunks clanged around the hallway.

Stephanie's right arm ached as she pointed her M6C Magnum with her left hand towards the doorway where the Jackal had disappeared. She heard it clucking and chirping as it took cover in the small apartments hallway entrance. Stephanie quickly got to her feet and took a single large stride across the hall and put her back up against the left wall of the hallway. She looked to her right then back to her left towards the Jackal's apartment. She could try to go back to her apartment and get her some grenades, but whats to stop the Jackal from coming and shooting her in the back? Decisions...

The clucking and chirping stopped and she brought her gun up and aimed it towards the Jackals doorway. She lined the iron sights up with about the Jackals midsection and took a deep breath. The doorway remained empty for a moment, then another. It seemed to be an eternity as each second ticked by, she couldn't decide whether to try and rush the Jackal or wait for it to try and rush her.

That's when she saw the movement, except it wasn't the brownish colored skin of the bird like creature. It was a glowing blue orb that whizzed out through the doorway and bounced off the right wall and landed a few feet from Stephanie. "Shit," she yelled as she sprinted away from the glowing orb of death. The floor shook and Stephanie was picked up by the concussive wave from the plasma grenade. She was tossed several feet forward and landed on a large jagged peice of debris. Its pointed edges sliced easily into her unarmored body, her warm flesh sliced easily apart as the metal rammed into her abdomen. Debris from the blast landed all around her as she layed on the sharp metal object. The pain shot throughout her body like a shot of adrenaline, she cried out in agony as she rolled onto her back.

She looked down at her stomach and the charred grey peice of metal was plunged deep into her skin. Red blood leaked out of the deep wound and soaked into her black t-shirt. She slowly moved her hand towards the metal fragment, a flicker of movement past where her attention was focused caused her to snap back to the reality of how imment her death was.

Nearly eight meters ahead of her the Jackal stepped out from his apartment with his plasma pistol glowing a bright green color. Stephanie raised her magnum and aimed it for the Jackal; the Jackal aimed its charged pistol down towards Stephanie's chest. Both weapons fired within a fraction of a second of one another, the orb of plasma whizzed down towards Stephanie. The 12.7mm round passed the orb in mid flight and they were nearly one centimeter from one another as they passed.

The bullet slammed into the soft chest of the Jackal and it gave out a cry of pain as its body was tossed back from the sheer power of the large bullet. Purple blood spurted up into the air from the wound as it was tossed backward, the blood splatterd to the floor and the Jackal landed with a slight tumble.

The green orb whizzed towards Stephanie, she raised her hands out of instict. The blob of energy washed over her hands and the world went dark. She felt her body tingle, she could smell the charred flesh and blood in the air. Stephanie let the darkness take her over as the smell of ozone finally wafted up her nostrils but didn't come back down.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

_**Unknown/ 2533/ UNSC Calendar**_

_**Seti Borta System/ Seti Borta VI / UNSC M.A.S.H. SIXTY ONE DELTA**_

"We've got severe plasma burns here," came a muffled mans voice. His voice seemed to be miles away, yet close enough to hear as well. The frantic voice of another person could be heard, she couldn't make out the exact words they were saying. "I don't care, we've lost forty two patients today. For god's sake, lets try and change that," came the mans distorted voice again.

"I need some dermacortic steroids in here," said a womans voice that sounded closer now. "C'mon, move your asses! Her heart rate is decreasing!"

"We're losing her aren't we," said the man again in a much more hushed tone then it had been before. "Her left forearm is badly burned. I don't know if we're going to be able to save it, if she survives this."

"We'll worry about that later," replied the calm woman's voice. The sounds of metal scraping and material being cut echoed in the dark void that filled Stephanie's mind, she tried to focus more on the people in the room near her but her concentration quickly faded and she found herself floating in the darkness once again. It was a calming feeling not having the urgent yelling and demanding voices filling her head anymore.

Stephanie tried to move her body, but found she couldn't. Her body felt like it was floating in the vast darkness of open space. She willed her hand to move upward in front of her face and it wouldn't move, this confused her and she felt her confusion disappear just as quickly as it had appeared. _What is this place? Why am I here? Maybe I'm dead. But if I was dead, then why did I hear voices? What the hell is going on?_

Stephanie's thoughts were interrupted by a piercing pain that ran up her side and across her stomach. If felt like being eaten by hundreds of ants, they were crawling all over her body, in and out of every crevice. Stephanie looked down in the darkness and saw her body, it was burned and torn exposing red charred flesh across her stomach and arms. The ants crawled in the thick soupy blood dripping from her wounds and she could feel the slight itch as they took bites of her bloody flesh. She instinctively moved her hands and tried to brush the ants away, her hands peeled away the burnt flesh like the blackened outside of a marsh mellow being cooked over a fire.

The bloody skin fell from her hand and plunged into the darkness. She listened intently, she looked at her hands in silence. They glistened with wet red blood and she felt a rising scream echo from her throat. _What is happening? _

Stephanie sat up and instinctively swung outward with her arms. Her right hand hit the small heart rate monitor standing next to her, sending it clattering to the floor. It gave a loud mechanical smash while her other hand got tangled in a small IV tube leading to her right wrist. Fear welled up from her throat and she leaned over the side of her bed, she began to vomit all over the floor. It splattered in a thick puddle on the sterile white floor of the room she was in. She continued to throw up until she gave dry heaves, each heave sent a sharp stabbing pain from her lungs to her finger tips.

"Shes awake," called a nurse from her right side. Stephanie glanced over at the doorway where a middle aged, blond haired nurse called down the hallway. Stephanie fought off another wave of nausea, she bowed her head towards the floor in a vain attempt to stop the feeling from happening. It came again and Stephanie gagged until it felt like her heart would fly out and into the brownish orange pile on the floor next to her bed.

The nurse quickly walked over to her side and picked up a large metal pale shaped object. Stephanie grabbed it and gagged into the stainless steel pale. "I take it, your not feeling to great," said the women in a calm motherly sort of way. "That should pass. Its a side-effect of the treatment they gave you for your injuries."

Stephanie finished her most recent heave and looked up at the woman. Her blond hair was tightly behind her head in a bun, while her cat like green eyes looked down at Stephanie. Her face was one of general concern mixed with knowledge of how she was feeling. She wore the pale blue uniform nurses wore in the civilian medical centers, it was odd that she was in a civilian medical center. "Where-," she attempted to say. She stopped just as she started and grabbed her throat, it felt like large razor blades were lodged in the spongy muscle of her throat.

"Try not to speak. After being unconscious for as long as you have, you'll need to give your body a little bit to wake up." Explained the nurse in a matter of fact tone, "It'll just be a moment before Doctor Gerin arrives."

"Where...am...I?" Struggled Stephanie to say over the pain in her throat.

"Your at MASH Sixty One Delta nearly sixty miles from K'tinga city. You were brought here nearly eleven days ago and you've been unconscious the entire time."

The door on the far side of the room slid open and a man in his late sixties entered the room. His white lab coat swished behind him as he quickly entered the room. He looked down at her and then at the puddle on the floor. "I see you've already had your wake up sickness. That's good, it means your treatment is going well," he said straight to the point.

"What..happened to...me?"

He looked at her in a quizzical fashion. "Don't you remember?" Stephanie shook her head in reply to him. He leaned back on his heals and grabbed a small hand held computer from a nearby wall. He read it, then looked up at her with a slightly grim look on his face. "You took a charged plasma pistol blast to the upper chest. Both your arms, chest and a portion of your face were badly burned by the plasma. Thankfully, you were found fairly quickly by a marine recon team. They said it couldn't of been more then a day after you'd been shot. You were brought here and have received treatment, your chest and face have healed nicely. There's little or no scarring. But, your arms are only forty percent healed."

Stephanie looked down at her arms, they were covered in a thick white bandage that was stained red in random spots down her wrists. "How long till... their fully healed?"

"It shouldn't be more then two days," he said with a smile.

"Do we really have that kind of time doctor?" Said the nurse to the doctor in a grim tone.

He glared at her before speaking, "This isn't the time nurse Sanders."

"You heard the military announcement just like I did, they just took K'tinga and secured the star port. Its only a matter of time before-." She was cut off before she could finish what she was saying to the doctor.

"Thats enough nurse. Our patient just came out of a brief coma and she doesn't need to be rushed with our recent troubled events."

She bit her lip and nodded to the doctor. "I'm going to go check up on the evacuation of the west tents," she said quickly before exiting the room.

"Whats happening doctor?" Asked Stephanie, surprised that she managed to finish the sentence without gasping from pain.

He looked down at her with a frown across his face. He stepped over and placed the hand held computer back in its slot in the wall, "I'm sorry to say corporal. But K'tinga City fell today. The covenant have finally secured a clear landing zone for their Spirits to touch down safely. The Covenant have began invading the rest of the planet, since this hospital is so close to the front we're being evac'd to another MASH past the city of Hor'ish."

Stephanie looked around the empty room she and the doctor were in. There were eleven other beds besides the one she was occuping, she looked back up to the doctor. "When does the evacuation start? The nurse said we don't have much time, how much time do we actually have?"

His gaze looked downward and his mouth twisted into a frown, "We should be evacuating within the day. The latest recon reports from the outer perimeter marines stated that they encountered an advanced scouting party moving in this direction. That was nearly ten hours ago. The colonel wanted to play it safe, so he ordered an immediately evacuation of the MASH."

"Am I able to move?" She asked looking at her bandages.

"Well, you can move. Its just," He said looking at her arms as well. "You can't let your arms touch anything. Not only would it be excruciatingly painful but it could damage the exposed flesh and prevent it from healing properly."

Stephanie sat looking at the bloody bandages, the doctor stood in silence next to her bed. A floodgate of thoughts raced through Stephanie's mind. _How long till the Covenant will arrive?Will I be evacuated before then?Would they leave patients behind just to save themselves?_

Doctor Gerin looked down at her, his eyes locking with hers. "No matter what happens, we won't leave any of the patients behind. Regardless of what state there in."

She looked up at him with a grim smile, "I'm sure you won't leave anyone. Not if the Covenant get here first."


End file.
